


Don't Blink

by l-ouresdeLuna (facemyJam)



Series: Rose Stays [8]
Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s03e10 Blink, Multi, Post Episode: s02e19 Inferno, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23766529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/facemyJam/pseuds/l-ouresdeLuna
Summary: Martha thought they were done with the past, at least the past on Earth, but she has another think coming. Well, at least she's not being shot at, right?Part Seven in the Rose Stays Series.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Third Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Rose Stays [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/758286
Comments: 58
Kudos: 103





	1. The TARDIS Has a Flat

**Author's Note:**

> Yooooooo! Whaddup! I'm not dead! I know it seemed like it, but I'm really not! Anyways, have some productive quarantine writing!

Martha shuts the TARDIS doors as Rose takes them into the Vortex. The silence is heavy with tension despite the laughter they just shared with Timmy not a few minutes earlier. Martha tries not to be mad at Rose, but every question she's ever asked gets met with a 'later' or a 'not now'. It was time that stopped, especially after the month Martha just had.

"I owe you an apology, Martha," Rose says before Martha can demand answers from her. She's messing with a button on the console as she says this, her eyes pointedly avoiding Martha's own. "I- I owe you so much more than an apology. I know how it feels to have your questions dodged and put off and met with nothing but redirections. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Martha. I owe you the truth, no matter how painful it is to me." Rose looks up from the console then, eyes shining with unshed tears and holding such sorrow it tore at Martha's heart. Martha could see then just hoow Matron Redfern fell in love with Rose.

"Thank you," Martha says, coming out as a whisper. Rose gives her a watery smile.

"That's my line, I think you'll find," Rose jokes coming over to hook their arms together. She walks them down a hallway that looked unfamiliar to Martha even with all the exploring she has done during their down time.

They walk about five minutes until they reach what looks like a flat door, there was even a number on it, faded and slightly crooked. Rose hesitates outside the door, her grip tightening on Martha's arm just a bit, as if to draw in comfort. Martha can tell that whatever lies behind this door, it would be a painful memory for Rose.

"Rose?" Martha asks, not even really knowing what she's trying to say. Rose shakes her head, eyes shut tight.

"This- This was the flat I grew up in," Rose explains. "After-," she cuts herself off to swallow, her hand coming up to nervously fiddle with her hoop earring. "After the Battle of Canary Wharf, I had to pack it all up, moved everything into the TARDIS and she set this up for me. I-," she stops once more.

"Rose, we don't have to- you don't have to do this if you're not ready," Martha tells her.

"No, it's okay, Martha. I- You deserve some answers and I need closure. Well, as much as I'm going to get." She gives Martha a tight smile before taking a deep breath in and opening the door, letting the breath out slowly as the door opens.

The door opens into a short narrow hallway with two doors on either side. There are three frames crowded at the end of the right wall, they show a younger Rose and a woman that must be her mum for there was a strong resemblance. There was a young black man in the third frame with them, all of them smiling for a camera angled to get them all in the frame.

"This was my room," Rose tells her, pointing to the door to the left. "And- And that's my mum's." The door to the right. "There's a kitchen through here," Rose says, leading her out of the hallways and into a living area with a short wall cutting off the kitchen from the living room. There was another narrow hallway by the kitchen, one that Martha couldn't quite see what it held, but she thinks she sees the shadows of more picture frames dotting the walls.

"This is very homey," Martha comments, taking in the knicknacks and semi-gaudy furniture. Rose laughs at that.

"Mum was always good at settling in and making things feel like home," Rose tells her, a sad smile on her face. She goes to the kitchen and uses the stove to put a kettle on.

"How's the kitchen work here, then?" Martha asks as she settles into the couch at Rose's insistence.

"Martha, we're on a bigger on the inside spaceship that travels through time and you're asking how the kitchen in this flat works?" Rose raises a teasing eyebrow and Martha fake scowls.

"Alright, if you don't wanna tell me," Martha says, which makes Rose laugh some more, bringing a smile to Martha's face.

"Gotta keep some secrets to keep the mystery alive," Rose says with her tongue touched grin.

Martha points a finger at Rose. "I'm on to you." She squints to sell the bit, Rose giggling some more before being distracted by the whistling kettle.

They get comfy on the couch, both nursing their teas, both nervous over how this was to begin.

"I'm- I supposed I should start by saying my family isn't dead," Rose says after a minute of ding a fish impression. "They- The Battle was, well, it happened at Torchwood Tower and it only started on account of them trying to open a rift. I dunno what they were opening it for, but the ghosts, you remember them?" Martha pauses to think and nods. She remembers them vaguely, knowing some parts of London got them more than others. "Well, turns out they weren't ghosts but Cybermen. Cybermen are, well, the Doctor told me they were once human with everything cut out, emotions included. They're just lumps of metal with a human brain to think."

"No emotions?" Martha asks, despite telling herself to not interrupt.

"It hurts, that's what the Doctor said," Rose tells her, eyes a million miles away and in another memory. "We fought them once, me an' him. We accidentally fell into another Universe."

"No way! A parallel world? Those are real?" Martha was fully invested now.

Rose shrugs. "Yeah, I guess. But this world, we called it Pete's World on account of it having my dead father be alive in this version. Also, I was a dog!" Rose shakes her head at this. "Anyway, this billionaire named Lumos or something- Lumic! He didn't want to die so he creates the Cybermen, but they go crazy, start trying to make everyone one of them, so me and the Doctor shut them down. Or, we think we do. We come back to our Universe and that's when we find Torchwood messing about with the rift, which caused the Cybermen to bleed through from Pete's World to ours. Only, when we get there to stop it do we find they opened a portal to the void and there was a ship- a Dalek ship." Martha gasps, now knowing why the name Dalek was so familiar.

"They were in the skies. The skies full of Daleks," Martha whispers as she remembers.

"Yeah, they had a bigger on the inside ship, fresh out the Time War and looking for Battle. They start on the Cybermen, which wasn't an issue, but then they moved on to humans and- But Pete, his Torchwood was good and with their help we find a way to close the void and repair the rift, only- Only the Doctor fell into Pete's World and- And I was left all alone. My mum, she's, she went to the other world 'cos Pete lost his Jackie and they wanted to give it a go. And Mickey, my best mate, he stayed over there to take care of his grandma."

"And it left you all alone," Martha fills in.

"Yeah," Rose says, letting out a sniffle.

"Well, there's me," Martha tells her, knowing it wasn't much comfort to give, but it was all the one she had to offer. Rose looks up at her, eyes wide. A grin overtakes her face, transforming the sadness into fondness.

"Better with two," Rose says, almost as if she's quoting something. Martha knows that this isn't Rose's full story, but knew Rose was entitled to her secrets. Tears in her eyes, Rose comes back to the present and gives her a watery smile. "Thanks."

"Pretty sure that's my line," Martha tells her with a smile. Rose gives her a watery one back.

They're just about to head to the kitchen for food when a loud bell sounds, red lights flashing about in warning.

"What's going on?" Martha shouts over the noise.

"I dunno," Rose shouts back. They stumble their way towards the console room, when the noise cuts off and they both sigh in relief. "Thanks, Girl." Rose goes to the console and starts pressing buttons and flicking switches, all which make Martha cling to the closest coral strut.

"Where're we going?" Martha yells against the sudden shifting of gravity. Before Rose has a chance to answer they land with a loud crash, both of them crashing to the ground. Martha can hear Rose laughing over the ringing in her ears. She turns over on her back to see Rose smiling over her.

"Up you get," Rose tells her as she helps Martha to her feet. "Sorry about the rough landing, it was a Mauve Alert."

"So, bad?" Martha guesses, wondering what happened to Red Alert.

"Mmm." Comes Rose's thin lipped reply as she reads the computer screen.

"And?"

"Well, we have two choices," Rose says. She shifts her eyes from Martha to the doors.

"Do we, though?" Martha asks, eyebrow raised and a small smile. Rose returns it, but it quickly takes over her face at the prospect of an adventure. "After you." Martha gestures to the TARDIS doors, knowing not to get in the way of Rose and the next adventure.

"Don't worry, Martha," Rose says as she walks out the doors. "I promise to land us somew-" Her sentence gets cut off, which worries Martha. She rushes out the doors.

"Rose?" Martha asks as she exits, only to have the TARDIS slam Her doors harshly behind her. "What the-" She starts as she looks at the Old Girl, but doesn't finish her sentence as an oppressive force slams into her.

Martha groans, the sound coming from deep in her chest.

"I'd stay laying for a couple more minutes," Rose suggests from beside her.

"Rose?" Martha asks a little groggily. "Where'd you go?" Her head ached something fierce and her shoulders felt as if they had been vice gripped.

"It's more like where'd  _ we _ go," Rose answers somewhat distractedly.

"Wha'?"

"Weeping Angels." Which does nothing to quell Martha's growing dread and confusion.

"What?" She repeats a little more forcefully.

Rose sighs out, shifting to sit more comfortably against the wall near them. Martha shifts to lean against it as well once she realizes her headache had subsided.

"After Shakespeare- the Carrionites- I started reading up on creatures and aliens just in case," Rose explains. "There weren't a picture for them for some reason, but I saw 'em before I blinked."

"I still don't understand," Martha says as she rubs at her left shoulder. "What does a weeping angel have to do with us being here, and where is here exactly?" She looks around, but the alley they were in doesn't provide many clues.

"Well, as far as I can tell, we're somewhere in the '70's," Rose says slowly, her fingers twisting in her lap.

"What?" Martha shouts in surprise, which makes her headache reemerge.  _ "How?" _ She asks at a lower volume after a few deep breaths.

"The Weeping Angels," Rose tells her. "The book I read called 'em the 'Kindly Assassins' because they don't kill you, not really. They just zap you to the past and let you live to death. See, they feed off the energy of your potential days, all the 'would be's' and 'could be's'."

"What? But I didn't see an angel," Martha tells her, going over what she last remembered before waking up here.

"Yeah, you wouldn't," Rose says softly. She rubs Martha's arm in comfort. "They can only move when they aren't seen. At least, tha's what I could tell from the passage, the book had some big, fancy words for it. Basically, they have a defense mechanism that makes 'em look like stone when seen, and then they can move really fast when you blink."

Martha's head swam, this was a lot to take in.

"So, you're saying we're stuck here, to live the rest of our lives until we catch up to the time where the TARDIS is?" She could feel herself start to panic, her lungs couldn't get enough air in. "My mum, my dad, my whole family will never know what happened to me," she says faintly. Part of her had come to terms with that while trapped in the escape pod headed towards an evil sun, but then they had lived and she put it out of her mind. Travelling with Rose wasn't exactly safe, but she's never once thought that she wasn't going to get home.

"Breathe, Martha," Rose's calm voice entered her chaotic thoughts. "Just focus on my voice, come on. You can do it." Rose whispers more encouraging words into her ear until she can feel her limbs again. She takes in a deep breath and realizes that Rose was calm. If Rose wasn't panicking, then there was nothing to worry about. ANd at least she had Rose with her to get her through this.

"Okay, I'm good," Martha pants out a couple minutes later. Her vision comes back into focus and she focuses on the balled up newspaper before her. She was clutching Rose's forearm hard, but she couldn't let go just yet. This was a tentative calm, and she needed to feel something solid to remain so.

"I'm sorry, Martha," Rose tells her, squeezing Martha's arm just as hard.

"You'll get us back," Martha responds quickly. "You'll get us back" She's surprised at the force of that belief, but she doesn't waver from it. Rose had gotten them back from quite a lot, this would be a cakewalk as well.

"I-," Rose squeaks out before clearing her throat. "We'll need to look around first, find out where we are exactly. We can plan something else from there." Martha nods in agreement and they both shakily stand to their feet.

Martha slowly releases her grip from Rose's forearm to go over to the newspaper. If it worked in Old New York, it would work here.

"August 23rd, 1969," Martha reads aloud.

"Ah, was a little off," Rose says with a small smile.

"I'm not gonna hold it against you," Martha tells her, feeling more at ease from knowing the date for some reason. "I didn't even know we moved and I had the TARDIS in front of me before we- wait. The TARDIS! Is She...?" Martha leaves off, wondering what would happen to Her if the Angels got a hold of Her. Maybe that's why she slammed Her doors shut.

"She's fine," Rose reassures. "She's faint, but She has no problem whinging at me." She rolls her eyes and Martha lets out a small laugh.

"Typical." Martha folds the newspaper before the date hits her. "Wait, 1969?" She flips back to the front page where the date was and reads it again. "Rose, 1969!"

"Yeah? What about it?" Rose asks distractedly as she tilts her head to the side. Martha waves it off as a Rose thing.

"You remember the lizard infestation before the evil sun? The Red Hatching?"

"Yeah? But- Oh!" Rose quickly unzips her jacket and shoulders off the right sleeve to plunge her arm into the inside pocket there. "I put it here somewhere. What colour was it?"

"Er, purple?"

"Gotcha!" Rose says a couple seconds later, yanking out a thick see-through purple filo-folder. She frowns down at it as she pulls her jacket back on. "What was her name again? Sally something."

"Some bird, I think," Martha says as she thinks back to it. It was really brief and she was glad to even remember it after the whole evil sun thing. She couldn't even picture the lady who gave them the folder.

"Sally Sparrow!" Rose shouts out, thumping the filo-folder with a smug smile.

"Yeah, that's it," Martha agrees, nodding in her head as she hears the woman say her name to them. "So, what's in it?" She asks, trying to get a look at all the papers in it.

"Dunno," Rose says, suddenly subdued. "'M kinda scared to look. What if what we read is permanent? An' what if what we read isn't good?"

"But, hasn't it already happened for us to have this?" Martha asks, brows furrowed. She gets what Rose is saying, but surely it's already happened?

"Technically," Rose says with a shrug, her own brows pinched in thought. "I'm not exactly sure."

"Well," Martha says, casting about for a plan. "What if we read the top paper, and if we don't like what it says, we won't read anymore?"

Rose bites her bottom lip, but Martha can see she can't think of another option either. They were given this for a reason, right?

"Deal." Rose takes in a deep gulp of air before unwinding the cord. A small yellowed card slips out into her waiting hand.

"What's it say?" Martha asks, coming round to look at it.

"It's an address."

\--

Sally Sparrow hops the old wrought iron gates blocking the way into the Wester Drumlins house, ignoring the signs telling her to keep out. She was much more interested in what kind of photos she’ll get out of this house and wouldn’t let some run down sign stop her. She breaks the cheap plywood board covering a broken window and walks around the room, taking photos of whatever catches her eye.

It’s when she goes to take a picture of the chair near a wall in another room does she see it. The letter B sticking out from the peeling wallpaper, tempting her to see what was written beneath. She grabs a hold of the corner and yanks a good chunk off the wall.

‘Beware the Weeping Angel’

It’s scribbled across a section of the wall, and she can see the tops of more words underneath more of the wallpaper so she keeps peeling.

‘Oh, and Duck!’

Intrigued, she peels another chunk.

‘Really, duck!’.

She rips another piece off and almost has a heart attack.

‘SALLY SPARROW, DUCK NOW!’

All caps, the word ‘now’ underlined and she does as she’s told. She’s glad she did, as a chunk of ceramic is thrown through a window behind her and hits straight at where her head was seconds ago.

Sally whips around, only to see a statue outside, an angel with its face in its hands. So, whoever threw that at her had left, or they were hidden, or whatever. Whoever it was, they didn’t really want to hurt her, or they wouldn’t have thrown the pot at her when she ducked, they wouldn’t have warned her either.

She faces the wall again, reading the words again, before she sees more beneath one last section. Taking a deep breath to psych herself up, she slowly reaches out and rips the wallpaper off fast, as if it were a plaster on her skin. All it says is,

‘Love, from the Doctor (1969)’.

“So much for that build up,” she mutters to herself before shivering and promptly leaving. This was too freaky, even for her.

She misses the last section peeling away on its own to reveal another set of words.

‘XOXO Rose and Martha’.


	2. Was This Supposed to be a Meet Cute?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparks fly as Rose meets a younger Doctor. No, literal sparks fly. Alright, maybe some metaphorical sparks as well. And Sally learns her best friends lied about her age, even when thrown into the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all i'm tired, but here you go. i've looked for as many continuity errors as possible, but if i've missed one, then my bad. please be nice to me.

Luckily, their outfits weren’t outing them as time travellers as they walked down the streets. Although, Rose did have to do something with the Sonic to a bank's computers so they could withdraw some bus fare money.

“Okay, so I looked at the bus map and we just have to take the one to the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, we’ll have to walk from there,” Rose explains as she divvies up the bus fare.

“And we can’t take a cab?” Martha asks. Rose shrugs.

“Didn’t think of that. You think this’ll be enough for a cabbie?” She opens her hands and Martha and her count it out.

“Depends. Never been to 1969, so I don’t know the rates, but it can’t hurt to ask.” Martha nudges Rose’s arm to where a cab sat kerbside.

“On it,” Rose tells her, scraping up all the money into her hands. Martha waits across the street in case the guy was like those boys from 1913. Rose laughs and hands over some money, waving Martha over. “Martha, this lovely gentleman has agreed to drive for us!” Rose shouts in a weird accent. “He helped me out with the money, too!”

Ah, pretending to be from a different country. Martha just smiles at the man, not sure if she could produce the same accent as Rose, not wanting to blow their cover. Rose gives her a shrug as they settle in the backseat.

It takes them about forty minutes in awkward silence to get to their destination, though the cabbie says he couldn’t pull right up to the gates, the place they were looking for was down the road he dropped them at.

Rose is frowning, head titled once more.

“What’s wrong?” Martha asks, looking about for something off.

“I dunno,” Rose says. “It’s like- Like there’s another TARDIS nearby or something.”

“What? What does that mean?” Another TARDIS? As in,  _ not Rose’s _ ?

“Well, could mean two things really,” Rose starts, biting her lip in contemplation. “Could mean we’ve gone far back enough to run into another Time Lord.”

“But you don’t think that,” Martha guesses.

“No, it feels like my TARDIS, but younger I think.” Rose closes her eyes before snapping them open. “He’s here.”

“What? Who?” She couldn’t mean who Martha thinks she means, right?

“The Doctor,” Rose whispers, voice breaking in surprise. She looks as if she’s about to cry.

“But you said he’s in another Dimension,” Martha points out, not wanting to be a Negative Nelly, but also not wanting to get Rose’s hopes up just in case.

“I think this is before that. Before he even met me.” Rose looks at Martha, panic in her eyes. “What do we do?”

“Are we- Is the TARDIS where we’re going?”

“Feels like it,” Rose says with a nod of her head.

“I mean, I don’t know. He’s still the Doctor, right? He’ll still help us out?” Martha knows next to nothing about the man despite several stories Rose had told. “You know him best, should we go on?”

“I don’t- It feels like we should, but I dunno. We were given this address, so maybe that means he’ll help, but I dunno if I can. He’ll be different and won’t know me and I dunno if I can face that.”

Martha goes over and gives her a hug. “I’ll be right there with you, promise.” Rose’s arms wrap tightly around her. “And we don’t even have to tell him who we are. He hasn’t met you, yet, we could lie right to his face.” Rose gives out a laugh as they pull back.

“We could tell ‘im we’re aliens or something,” Rose suggests. Martha chuckles.

“Aren’t we to him, though?”

“Well, yeah, but we could be from the planet Zovirax,” Rose says with a tongue touched grin.

Martha shouts out a laugh. “You remember! Is that a real planet?”

“Dunno, but I doubt the Doctor knows either. So, wanna be a Zoviraxian?” Martha shrugs.

“Sure, but how do we explain how we got here? And what if we need help for the rest of what’s in the folder?”

“Right.” Rose puts her hands on her hips, thinking of how to go about this. “We could say- Well, no we can’t. Hmm, maybe we could say we’re…. Time Agents! Yeah, we were on a mission to do with the Weeping Angels, only we didn’t know that’s what they were, and now we’re here.”

“Time Agent? And what about the file?”

“Yep,” Rose says, popping the ‘p’. “Time Agents are from the 51st Century, I think. I dunno much about ‘em, but I think they investigate things throughout time. That thing I mentioned about The Family? The Vortex Manipulator? Tha’s a Time Agent device. It’s like a- like a time hopper, gets you to where you want, but it’s sorta like being touched by an Angel.”

“So, it sucks,” Martha surmises and Rose snorts.

“Kinda.”

“And the file?”

“Well, we could tell the truth on that. On another mission we ran into someone who gave us this, said we’d get stuck in the past and that we’d need it.” Rose shrugs, “Anything else we can improvise, I guess.”

“Alright, sounds good. But we are so going to the 51st Century to meet some Time Agents later,” Martha tells her. It sounded so cool.

Rose laughs, though it sounds a little odd. “Deal, Doctor Jones.”

“What? I haven’t- Oh, my cover, got it.”

“Just call me Prentice, Agent Prentice,” Rose says in a horrible Sean Connery accent, face contorted into a cheesy smirk, hands up as if it were a gun in them.

“Wow. I say this with all my love, but please  _ never _ do that again.” Martha shakes her head.

Rose sticks her tongue out at Martha. “Meanie!” They both laugh, starting to walk again.

“So, wait, if we are Time Agents who have a Vortex Manipulator, how are we stuck here?” Martha asks a minute later.

“Well, maybe something happened to it,” Rose suggests. “Or it fell off my wrist as the Weeping Angel got me?”

“Sounds good,” Martha says with a shrug. “That way no one asks to fix it or see it or whatever.”

“Good point,” Rose says. “You know, the Doctor said something a long time ago about only taking the best. Back then he said he had me, and now- Now I have you.” Rose gives her a watery smile and Martha can’t help but tear up a little as well.

“You’re damn right,” Martha says harshly. She hooks her elbow through Rose’s. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good.”

They walk a couple more steps until the road widens out into a gravel driveway. It leads all the way up to what looks like another boarding school, or a mansion.

“Right, Time Lord,” Martha jokes as she looks up at the building.

And then they’re surrounded by soldiers with guns shouting at them to get on the ground and Martha drops to her knees like a stone, hands coming up just as fast. Rose does the same, but more slowly.

“Stay calm,” Rose whispers to her. She can barely hear it over the pounding of her heart. “Hello, is the Doctor in? We’d like to speak to him, please,” Rose tells the soldiers calmly. Martha would’ve laughed at her wordplay if they weren’t being handcuffed and marched into the building.

\--

Rose could’ve done without being handcuffed but,  _ apparently _ , mentioning the Doctor was a breach of national security or some such nonsense. She would make sure she got the full story of this from the Doctor at a later date, ignoring the small part of her that even wondered if he would be coming back at all.

Her and Martha are ushered into an office where an overworked military man sat behind his desk piled with papers. He looked as if he could use a good nap and possibly a vacation as well.

Before Rose could protest their treatment, though, the man looks up and does a double take.

“Surely the handcuffs weren’t necessary, were they, Corporal?” He asks of the man escorting them, a slight scoff to his words at the thought of two girls being dangerous.

“Sir.” The Corporal uncuffs them before being dismissed.

“Have a seat, ladies,” the man says, putting down the papers he was filling out. “My name is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and I’d very much like to know how you came to find this place.”

Rose handed over the card with the address on it. “We were told to come here,” she explains.

The Brigadier takes the card, reads it, flips it over, studies it for a good minute, before setting it on his desk.

“By whom, exactly?”

Rose knew this man would have no idea what a Time Agent was, so she improvised just a bit.

“By the Doctor.” She could feel Martha stiffen slightly at her side, but a sideways glance showed her containing her surprise. Martha really was the best.

“The Doctor?” The Brigadier asks incredulously. He leans back in his chair, studies them both.

“Well, a friend of a friend,” Rose explains. “Said to come here if needed.”

“I see.” The Brigadier gives nothing away aside from a twitch of his mustache. He presses a button on the phone next to him and several seconds later a man in a ridiculous velvet green suit with a frilly shirt and a magician cape walks in with a severe pout on his face.

“Brigadier, what is the meaning of summoning me like a dog?” The man asks with such haughtiness that Rose immediately knows who he is. Her first thought about him- how expressive his eyebrows were. The second- this was going to hurt.  _ A lot. _

“Beg pardon,” the Brigadier says with all the wearniness of a man long used to dealing with the Doctor. “But these ladies here say you told them to come here? Pardon, a friend of a friend.” He phrases it like a question, with all the temperment of a mother scolding a child for breaking the rules.

The Doctor turns and looks them over for half a second before giving the Brigadier a look.

“Is this some sort of a joke? I have never met these women in my life.”

“Not yet,” Rose chimes in, trying to stop a squabble from breaking out between the two.

“Beg pardon?” The Doctor asks, stopping mid-rant to the Brigadier.

“I said, ‘not yet’,” Rose repeats with as much of a smile as she could give him. “Hello, Doctor.” She gives a jaunty wave just to mess with him.

“And you are?” He asks with a squint, trying to guess who she was by sheer force of staring power. How very Doctor-y of him.

“That depends,” she says with a shrug.

“On?”

Rose stood, grabbed the card from the desk and held it out to the Doctor.

“This your handwriting?” She had a hunch it was.

The Doctor grabs it from her hand and looks the card over, sniffing and almost licking it. He turns it every which way, and even bends it in half before handing it back.

“I do believe it is,” he states with no outward emotion as to what he gained from studying it. “But the question still remains. Who are you, madam?”

Rose feels a much more genuine smile grace her lips. “‘M Rose, this is Martha. We meet some time into your future.”

“Oh, great,” the Brigadier mutters. “Doctor, please do tell me you actually know these women.”

The Doctor just stares into Rose’s eyes for a good minute before breaking his trance to glare at the Brigadier.

“No, it seems I haven’t met them yet.” He eyes Rose suspiciously and she sighs. He was always a hard one to convince. She holds out her left hand, palm up

“Would this help?” She asks.

“Do you have any idea what that means?” He asks her, eyes flickering from her hand to her face. She can tell she’s caught him off guard, perhaps because she knows this tradition?

“Of course, Doctor.” She focuses on keeping her hand steady, making sure not to show how scared she is of him actually taking her up on the offer. It’s been a long time since then, and she’s not sure how much she could keep away from this old new Doctor.

He backs away like she’s burned him, back hitting the wall with quite a bit of force.

“That’s quite alright, child. I believe you,” he tells her. She drops her hand and he immediately relaxes, much to her amusement. Same old Doctor, same fear of intimacy. But perhaps there’s another reason for it. She gives him a quick once over and- oh.  _ Oh _ .

Oh  _ no _ . This version is young.  _ Too  _ young. His eyes don’t hold the weight she was used to seeing. This was the reason he held himself with such self-assurance. This was  _ before _ , wasn’t it? Before the Time War, before the destruction of his people. Rose doesn’t know how she’s so sure of it, but she is. This was a Doctor before he became the last of his kind. Another kind of heartbreak in the making.

“Doctor?” The Brigadier asks, no doubt wondering why he was scared of a hand.

“It’s quite alright, my dear, Brigadier. They are what they say.” He fixes his jacket, refusing to look at her. It hurts more than she thought it would. More than she wanted it to.

The Brigadier sighs like a man with regrets. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He mutters more under his breath as he tidies up his desk. “They will be restrained to your laboratory, Doctor. And I’m having Yates be an escort.”

“Really, Brigadier, I doubt they need a babysitter,” the Doctor says with a scoff.

“Don’t be foolish, Doctor,” the Brigadier dismisses. A smile stretches out his mustache, making him appear several years younger. “Yates is for you. Dismissed,” he adds, when it looks like the Doctor was set to argue.

Rose hides her giggles as she follows the Doctor out of the Brigadier’s office.

“You gonna tell me what that was?” Martha whispers as they walk. Rose is aware of the Doctor sticking close by despite leading them. Oh the things she’d give to hold his hand, to have him tell an inside joke, to have him smile at her, to have him know her.

“Just a little friendly greeting,” Rose says, shrugging. She doesn’t really know how to explain it more than that and it was far too painful to tell the story behind it.

“More than friendly,” the Doctor mutters, but only Rose catches it. Which is odd.  _ Her  _ Doctor had told her it was a way to exchange information fast between two minds who were not telepathically compatible. He did say it was rather intimate, but she just assumed he meant because of the mind melding thing. But his reaction makes her think Her Doctor skipped over some things.  _ Important _ things. Typical.

“What was that, Doctor?” Yates, the man who met them at the door, asks. The Doctor just dismisses him with a wave of his hand.

“Never you mind,” he grunts out, reminding Rose of her first Doctor. Although the comparisons aren’t quite a match. This one was uptight and very full of himself.  _ Hers _ , at least, knew how to work with people, even as he was rude about it he was never dismissive. But given this one hadn’t experienced the Time War yet, she knew he still had some growing up to do.

Yates just rolls his eyes, no doubt used to the brash manner of the Doctor.

“Here we are, then,” Yates announces as the Doctor barges through a door to the right.

Rose and Martha enter, both of them drawn to the TARDIS stood almost smack in the doorway entrance. Even this close Her song was faint, as if she were ill.

“So, tell me, what brings you here?” The Doctor asks as they sit down on the few available stools in the lab. He has this manic energy around him, as if he’s nervous or excited, but judging by the glances he keeps stealing her way, Rose doubts this mood is exciting.

Rose looks at Martha, who shrugs. “A Weeping Angel,” Rose tells him, figuring here is where they stick to the cover they came up with.

“A  _ what _ ?” The Doctor asks, looking caught off guard once more. Rose thought it was rather funny he was the one with the questions and she the one with the answers.

“An alien who can send you back in time with just a touch.”

“Oh? And why would it do that?” He asks haughtily.

“To feed off the potential everyone gives off, all the days you would have lived in the present are now theirs for the taking,” she explains.

“Why would they do that?” Yates asks ahead of the Doctor’s question.

“Do what?” Is he asking why they feed?

“Send you back? Why not kill you?” Yates asks. More of a why they feed  _ that way _ .

Rose shrugs “Well, I’m not an expert. Could be they don’t like the mess?” She asks cheekily.

“Could be blood squeamish,” Martha adds, nudging Rose with her elbow.

“And that card?” The Doctor asks, interrupting their ribbing.

“You tell us,” Martha challenges. “It was your own handwriting.”

“And you think I know why?” He asks, puffing himself up. He was about to spew. “So it was my handwriting! I haven’t had these hands for long and that makes you think I know all that they do?”

Rose covers her face with her hands, laughter threatening to break from her. She knew it would be a bad idea to laugh at this Doctor. He’d no doubt take it as some affront, but face of his as he clearly tried to defend himself! Her laugh breaks free, shaking her in it’s force.

“‘M sorry, but your face! Those eyebrows!” Rose manages to get out between her laughter. “Tha’s great!” Rose can tell he’s more puffed up than ever, but before she can force herself to stop, Martha joins in and it sets her off.

It takes her a minute to compose herself.

“Reckon we should tell ‘im, yeah?” She asks Martha, hoping that would shock her out of her laughter.

“You think so?” Martha asks, panting and trying to get her breath back.

“Might as well,” Rose says. He clears her throat. “‘S not like we can get anywhere without him.”

“What we discovered?” Rose pauses at this question. Martha really, truly was the best.

“So, Doctor, what do you know of the Time Agents?” Rose asks him, getting back on track.

“Those pompous, self-serving idiots?” Rose nods at that, almost laughing again at his scoff.

“So, you’ve heard of us, then?”

“You? A Time Agent?” She can tell he’s skeptical.

“Is that so surprising?” Surely he’s not asking this ‘cos they’re women?

“Only in that you say we are acquainted with one another.”

“Oh, supposing you don’t mingle with us pompous, self-serving idiots?”

“As a matter of fact, I do not,” he tells her with a sneer.

“Obviously not if we know you in the future,” Martha interjects. Rose can tell she’s getting angry with this Doctor.

“And error of judgement on my part,” he tells them, nose in the air. It would be funny if he weren’t being snobbish to her.

“Perhaps we should leave,” Martha suggests to Rose, but Rose just shakes her head.

“It’ll be okay, Martha.”

“Tell me what?” The Doctor demands, more than asks. He’s probably annoyed at being ignored for so long.

Rose pulls out the purple file-folder. “We were told if we ever got stuck in this time to open this folder and follow what was in it. That’s where the card with your handwriting came from.” The Doctor tries to take the file from her, but she pulls it back, wary of this Doctor and the information within the folder. “Can you promise what we read on here isn’t permanent?”

\--

“Kathy?” Sally calls out as she rounds the corner of the hallway to see if she’s watching a movie.

_ “They’re coming. They’re coming for you, but listen, your life could depend on this. Don’t blink. Don’t blink at all. Blink and you’re dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. So don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and don’t blink.” _

_ “Good luck,”  _ the three of them say at once. A blonde, a bloke dressed in cheesy sci-fi clothes, and a black woman all sat in front of the camera. They all  _ sound _ as if they’re from some cheesy sci-fi show to boot.

Right then, time to call her, if she’s not up.

_ “Hello?” _ Kathy answers, sounding tired.

“Bit freaked. Need to talk. Making you a coffee,” Sally tells her, pouring the water in the coffee maker.

_ “Sally Sparrow, it’s one in the morning,”  _ Kathy grumbles.  _ “Do you think I’m coming round at one in the morning?” _

“No. I’m in the kitchen. What’s that on all those screens in your front room?”

_ “Oh, god. Oh, god. Sally, you’ve met my brother Larry, haven’t you?” _

“No?”

_ “You’re about to,”  _ Kathy tells her and just then a nude bloke walks in the kitchen and pauses at the sight of her.

“Okay,” he says groggily. “Not sure, but really,  _ really _ hoping. Pants?”

She gives him an amused smile.

“No.”

“Put them on!” Kathy hisses down the hallway, her footsteps getting closer. “Put them on! I hate you! What’re you thinking!”

Larry makes a run for it, much to Sally’s delight. She blows on her coffee and pours out a cup for Kathy, who enters the kitchen.

“Sorry. My useless brother. Sally? What’s wrong? What’s happened?”   
  
She must look worse than she feels, but still, a bit freaked at the writing on the wall, and her near brush with death. So she tells all to Kathy who listens and yawns and drinks three cups of coffee.

“Let me get some clothes on,” Kathy says after she’s done explaining all that happened.

They drive out to Wester Drumlins because Kathy wants to see the spooky house, and the sun’s barely breaking through the trees when they arrive.

“Okay, let’s investigate! You and me, girl investigators. Love it,” Kathy says as they climb over the fence. “Hey! Sparrow and Nightingale. That  _ so _ works.”

“Bit ITV,” Sally says with a grin on her face.

“I know!” Kathy says back as if that were the point. “What did you come here for anyway?” She asks as Sally leads her to the weird writing on the wall.

“I love old things,” Sally says, breathing in the damp air. “They make me feel sad.”

“What’s good about sad?”

“It’s happy for deep people,” Sally says, mostly to mess with her friend, when something on the wall catches her eye. “That wasn’t there before.” But before she can squat to take a closer look, the statue in the garden catches her eye. “The Weeping Angel.”

“Not bad in my garden,” Kathy comments.

“It’s moved.”

“It’s what?”

“Since yesterday. I’m sure of it,” she adds on at the look Kathy gives her. “It’s closer. It’s got closer to the house.” She moves back to the drawing room where the writing was and shakes her head in confusion. “How can my name be written here? How is that possible?”

The doorbell rings, interrupting whatever Kathy was going to tell her.

“Who’d come here?” Kathy asks instead and then freaks out as Sally moves to the door. “What are you doing? It could be a burglar.”

“A burglar who rings the doorbell?” Sally asks with a small chuckle.

“Okay, I’ll stay here in case of.,” Kathy trails off as she thinks through her excuses.

“In case of?”

“Incidents?”

“Okay,” Sally accepts, knowing her friend would have her back if she were to get in trouble.

“I’m looking for Sally Sparrow,” the tall spindly man says as she opens the door, as if this wasn’t a decrepit house and she were the owner.

“How’d you know I’d be here?” She asks him, trying to angle the door between them in case she had to defend herself.

“I was told to bring this letter on this date at this exact time to Sally Sparrow,” the man says, pulling an envelope from the breast pocket of his suit.

“Looks old.” Okay, now she was intrigued.

“It is old,” the man says with a soft smile before he squints at her. “I’m sorry, do you have anything with a photograph on it, like a driving license?”

  
As if she was going to give this man her drivers license-  _ but _ . That letter looked  _ really _ old, and it was addressed to her.  _ Hmm _ .


	3. Martha Finna Through These Hands

He’s startled by her question, she can tell, but she doesn’t let up from her stare. This was serious.

“Who  _ are  _ you?” He asks her, brows furrowed. He’s frustrated and she knows he won’t continue on if he wasn’t going to get any answers. Only, it hurts that he’s looking at her as if she’s something to dissect.

“‘S like we said, Time Agents, Doctor. Agent Prentice, and tha’s Doctor Jones.” She can tell he’s about to press the issue, so she wiggles the file in front of him. “This was given to us by someone who knew our future,” she says over what was sure to be a temper tantrum. “Told us that we would get stuck here and to read this when we do.”

“Only, how were we to know it was on account of the Weeping Angels,” Martha tacks on with a scoff, selling the bit very well. Rose can tell she’s enjoying messing with the Doctor, and were this Doctor a bit nicer, Rose would’ve found it quite fun, too.

“Yes, these mysterious Weeping Angels I know nothing of, and you seem to know everything about,” the Doctor complains. His face in something  _ she _ would describe as a pout, but he would say was him contemplating.

“I hardly think we know everything about them,” Rose mutters.

“Yeah, otherwise we wouldn’t have been accidentally sent back,” Martha adds with a roll of her eyes.

“If this Time Agency knew you would be sent back in time, why not have people waiting for you here, then?” Yates asks, clearly struggling to understand, but posing a very good question.

“Ah, yes. That’s the thing,” Martha says with a clearing of her throat.

“It wasn’t the Time Agency who told us we’d be stuck,” Rose continues. “They gave us the mission to check on the time disturbances that we now know were caused by the Weeping Angels, but they just gave it to us in passing. This one over here said he’d come get us, but had yet to arrive. Probably because of what’s happening right now, but still.” She jerks her head in the direction of where the Doctor is pouting, an amused smile on her face at him being put out.

“ _ Late, _ as usual,” Martha adds on. Rose really needs to take her somewhere tropical and calm for a good few weeks when they get the TARDIS back.

“And the file folder?” Yates asks, nodding to the file in her hand and interrupting yet another temper tantrum from the Doctor.

“Well, Doctor? Can you promise?” Rose asks, holding it out to him once more.

He snatches the folder from her hands before she could pull it away again, giving her a grumpy look. “Of course I can’t,” he tells her, feathers clearly ruffled.

Rose rolls her eyes. “Of course not,” she mutters as he rips into the file. She feels slightly worried about the information in there. Anything that deviates from what she and Martha told them would result in some sort of secret government prison probably. And then she most definitely wouldn’t ever see the Doctor again, nor would Martha ever see her family again. And they’d be stuck in the past again, for forever.

“Well?” Martha asks, no doubt curious as to what’s inside as well. They both were tempted several times on the way here to take another peek.

“It’s a script,” the Doctor answers, flipping through the pages lightning fast. “Not a very good one, at that.” He places it aside and reaches for a folded piece of paper that looks as if it’s been crumpled a couple of times.

“A script?” Martha goes over to where he placed it and flips through it. “Not good? This is bloody brilliant, in a way.” Rose is curious about the script, too, but lets Martha have at it for the time being.

“I Really Hate My Job, Blood, The Man Who Cried, Pride and Prejudice?” Rose reads off, very confused. “A list of what, 16 odd movies that have nothing in common?”

“Seventeen,” the Doctor corrects absentmindedly as he looks over the paper for more clues.

“Ah yes, that makes everything clearer,” Rose snorts. She glances over at Martha and rolls her eyes.

The Doctor haphazardly flings the list of movies away, clearly done with his inspection, and reaches for another piece of the puzzle. Rose barely catches the list in it’s fall and reads it over again to see if there were something else on the paper, but no, just a list of early 2000’s movies with no clear connection other than them being movies.

“DI Billy Shipton,” the Doctor reads off, muttering more to himself as a look of understanding lights his eyes.

“You want a Detective Inspector?” Yates asks, looking ready to call this person up.

“What?” The Doctor asks harshly as he’s pulled from his thought process. “No, no, no, my dear man. He’ll come to us.” He sets the small journal down and tips out the last thing in the file folder.

“My TARDIS key!” Martha shouts, hands going to where it should’ve been on her neck.

“Beg pardon? Your  _ what _ ?” The Doctor asks confusedly, his impressive eyebrows scrunched up tightly against each other. He hardly protests when Martha snatches her key from his hands, probably still caught up on her having a key in the first place. Rose could tell this Doctor wasn’t as free as her own with his TARDIS. Possibly because he was still so young.

“Ah, the Angels must’ve wanted in to the TARDIS,” Rose says as she checks to make sure her own key is secure. She can feel the Doctor eyeing her as she does so. “Imagine what would happen if they cracked that open.”

“They’d get fat?” Martha jokes as she pockets the key, the frayed rope getting thrown away. Rose snorts at the thought of fat Weeping Angels.

“You figure out what we need to do next?” Rose asks, interrupting what she assumed would be another question about the TARDIS key.

He glares at the pocket Martha stuffed her key in for a couple more seconds before turning and gathering some of the other papers from the folder.

“It’s simple, really. I’ll need to build a spatial-temporal detector,” he explains in a haughty tone.

“And what’s that do?” Martha asks.

“So we’ll be there to greet Detective Inspector Shipton.” Which doesn’t really clear anything up for anyone else who wasn’t the Doctor.

“He get touched by an Angel, too?” Rose asks, though she’s really wanting to ask how old he is as he acts like a teenager trying to prove they’re much more mature than their age.

“Yes, yes,” he replies impatiently, searching his lab for parts to build his detector.

“Well then Doctor, need any help with your  _ timey-wimey _ device?” Rose asks, grin on her face when he looks over his shoulder at her in despair. “Saw it mentioned in that script and thought I’d try it out.”

“Sounds better than spatial-temporal detector,” Martha comments with a grin of her own at the Doctor’s face. Seems like Martha’s found the joys of travelling with the Doctor- making fun of him to his face to see his reactions.

The Doctor tsks and huffs, making disparaging comments under his breath as he titters about his lab. Rose and Martha giggle as he goes.

\--

Once Sally had gotten over the fact that her best friend was no longer in the same time period as her, and she dried her tears, she made her way over to where Kathy’s brother worked.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for Lawrence Nightingale,” she tells the man sat looking at the old TV in the corner of the room.

“Through the back,” he says distractedly, barely moving his hand to point the way. She takes that as an invitation to go back there and doesn’t hesitate to move past the bead curtain.

“Hello?” She calls out when she sees nothing but black.

_ “Rose,”  _ the man in a velvet green jacket scolds.

_ “Yes?”  _ Rose says with a smile. She sits down next to the man, crossing her arms and ignoring the man's glare.

_ “That is a possibility,” _ the man next to Rose says.  _ “Afraid so,”  _ he says again after a slight pause.

“Oh, hello. Can I help you?” Lawrence asks as he enters from the back and she turns from the screen to him.

“Hi,” she says with an awkward smile.

_ “Thirty eight,”  _ the man on the screen replies to something only he can hear. The blonde next to him hits him on the arm.

“Er, just a mo’,” Lawrence says, picking up a remote and pausing the screen. He gives her another look over and she knows what’s coming next. “Hang on. We’ve met, haven’t we?”

“It’ll come to you,” she says, enjoying this despite the circumstances.

His eyes bug out as he remembers. “Oh, my god!” He places his hands in front of his crotch and she smiles brightly at him.

“There it is.”

“Sorry,” he apologizes. “Sorry again for the whole-” He waves his hand about, but she cuts him off.

“Message from your sister,” she tells him, sobering up at the thought of this morning.

“Oh! Okay? What? What is it? What’s the message?” He asks her as she tries to come up with a plausible explanation. She should have done this before she came over here, but she was still crying when that happened.

“She’s… had to go away for a bit,” she tells him, cringing on the inside.

“Where?”

“Just a work thing. Nothing to worry about.” Yeah, nothing at all.

“Okay,” he says, accepting her words just like that.

“And,” she presses, wincing as his acceptance catches up to her.

“And what?”

“She loves you,” she blurts out, almost making it a question instead.

“She what?” Larry is clearly startled.

“She said to say,” Sally tells him with a shrug, knowing Kathy said no such thing really. “She just sort of mentioned it. She loves you. There, that’s nice, isn’t it?” She nods at her job well done.

“Is she ill?”

“No! No.”

“Am I ill?” He looks down at himself at the thought.

“No!” Who wouldn’t know they’re ill?

“Is this a trick?”

“No, she loves you,” she tells him, a little exasperated by him. Honestly.

_ “People don’t understand time. It’s not what you think it is,” _ the man from the screen says and Larry grabs the remote and pauses it again.

“Who is this guy?”

“Sorry, the pause thing keeps slipping. Stupid thing.”

“Last night at Kathy’s, you had him on all those screens. That same guy, with those two women as well. Talking about, I don’t know, blinking or something.”

“Yeah, the bit about the blinking’s great. I was just checking to see if they were all the same,” Larry says with some pride as if he were the one who made the videos.

“What were the same? What is this? Who are they?”

“An Easter egg.”

“Excuse me?”

“Like a DVD extra, yeah?” Larry says to her. “You know how on DVDs they put extras on, documents and stuff? Well, sometimes they put on hidden ones, and they call them Easter eggs. You have to go looking for them. Follow a bunch of clues on the menu screen.”

_ “Really? Not what you think it- You realise how  _ **_pretentious_ ** _ you sound, yeah?”  _ A black woman cuts in to the left of the man as the pause slips again.

_ “Miss Jones,”  _ the man scolds.

“Sorry,” Larry apologizes again, pausing it once again. “It’s interesting actually. They’re on seventeen different DVDs. There are seventeen totally unrelated DVDs, all with them on. Always hidden, always a secret. Not even the publishers know how they got there. I’ve talked to the manufacturers, right? They don’t even know. It’s like they’re a ghost DVD extra. Just shows up where they’re not supposed to be. But only those. Those seventeen.”

“Well, what do they do?” Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say.

“Just sit there, making random remarks. It’s like we’re hearing half a conversation. Me and the guys are always trying to work out the other half.”

“When you say you and the guys, you mean the internet, don’t you?” She teases.

“How’d you know?” Larry asks, looking surprised.

“Spooky, isn’t it?”

_ “Alright, very complicated,” _ the guy says as the screen starts again.

“Laurence? Need you,” his boss calls for him and Larry leaves without pausing.

“Excuse me a sec,” he says as he goes.

_ “ _ **_See?_ ** _ Pretentious,” _ the Jones woman scoffs, making the blonde to the right snort.

_ “If you don’t mind,”  _ The man says to the Jones woman before squaring his shoulders and staring at the screen once more _.  _ He sighs. _ “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint,” _ the screen man babbles before the blonde next to him cuts in.

_ “‘S more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff,”  _ she says looking proud of herself. The man next to her looks affronted though, at being interrupted or the words Sally can’t tell. Maybe both.

“Started well, that sentence,” she says with a small laugh.

_ “Thank you,” _ the man says while the blonde rolls her eyes.

_ “It got away from me, yeah?”  _ she says a second later, more to the screen than to the man.

_ “Hey, I liked it,”  _ the Jones woman defends.  _ “Better than spatial-temporal, whatever  _ **_that’s_ ** _ supposed to mean.”  _ She rolls her eyes.

“Okay, that was weird. Like you can hear me.”

_ “Well, we can hear you,”  _ the man says with a scrunch of his eyebrows.

Sally jumps to hit the pause button.

“Okay, that’s enough,” she says to the telly. “I’ve had enough now. I’ve had a long day and I’ve bloody had enough!” Larry walks in and pauses at her screaming. “Sorry, bad day.”

“Got you the list,” he says, changing the subject.

“What?”

“The seventeen DVDs. I thought you might be interested,” he says looking unsure now.

“Yeah, great,” she tells him, just wanting to go somewhere to digest everything that’s happened so far today. “Thanks.” She snatches the list from his hands and leaves through the beaded curtain.

“Go to the police, you stupid woman,” the man sat in front of the telly says to the screen. “Why does nobody ever just go to the police?”

Now there’s a thought. She leaves the shop and changes her plan to curl up under her covers to trying to find the nearest police station.

\--

Martha volunteered to help the Doctor with his temporal gadget doodad thing while Rose, Yates, and another bloke called Benton looked through that script for more clues. She could tell Rose wanted some one on one time with the Doctor, but Martha saw the way he treated her in the short time they’ve been here and she wasn’t having that. This man may have been Rose’s great lost love come back to life, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t slap him if he sneered in Rose’s direction one more time. In fact, Martha was having a hard time seeing the two of them together, but then she’d see Rose sneak a fond glance over at him or she’d remember the way Rose described him and she calmed down some.  _ Some. _

Martha glared at him as she handed him yet another tool he demanded, simmering with anger over how easily he could brush past her staring. It’s as if many people had glared at him before, and she could see why. He never seemed to watch what he was saying, nor did he register the effects they had on people.

“Martha, you alright?” Martha looked up to see Rose’s worried face, and she relaxed her intense glare.

“Yeah,” Martha sighs out.

“The scrompter, if you would,” the Doctor cuts in, hand held out in waiting.

“The what?” Martha asks, looking over the tools and wondering which one that was. Was that an alien tool or something humans invented?

“Doctor, you’re holding the scrompter,” Rose says with an eye roll. “If you’re looking to weld that, you need this.” She picks up a small dental like tool and hands it over.

“Right then,” he grumbles out, snatching the tool out of Rose’s hands. He fiddles with the device before setting everything down and runs his hands over the box. “Done.” He grins at them and flicks a switch. It immediately explodes in his face, Rose and Martha laughing over his choking on the smoke.

“Looks like you got your wires crossed there,” Rose teases, waving the smoke from her face.

The Doctor just gives an exasperated sigh and opens the cover back up. “Scrompter,” he tells them, hand held out.

“Right.” Martha scoots out from the table and stands. “He’s all yours,” she tells Rose, clapping her on the shoulder. Rose snorts.

“You jus’ want to help those pretty boy soldiers,” Rose teases back, grin widening at Martha’s own.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Martha gives her a wink. They exchange salutes before trading places and Martha settles in between Yates and Benton. “Right then, lads, show me what you got.” They both smile over at her and suddenly Martha’s not so mad at being stuck in the past yet again.

They looked over the script, and she notes she has some lines in it, though not as much as Rose and the Doctor. It was a waste of time to try and decipher anything from it for now, especially without them knowing how the script played into them being here.

“Don’t connect those two unless you want to boil an egg at twenty paces,” Martha overhears Rose say. She turns to see just what those two have gotten up to.

“Thirty paces, actually,” the Doctor snips back, brows furrowed either in concentration or frustration.

“Oh? Wasn’t aware you upped the voltage on that car battery.” Martha stands and goes over to them, mostly to stretch out her legs, but also because she wanted to make sure they weren’t building another device that would explode.

“That’s what the scrompter was for,” the Doctor tells her. Martha snorts while Rose gives him a tongue touched grin, clearly not believing him. Martha watches as the Doctor’s eyes trail down to her mouth and then slowly back up to her eyes, eyebrows scrunched together tightly.

“Thought that was so you could test Martha,” Rose says, propping her chin on her hand and leaning towards him.

“Test?” The Doctor was trying for innocence, but Martha could tell he was affected. She couldn’t tell if it was due to Rose’s flirting or if he was angry at being found out, but Martha decides to go sit back down at her stool, having heard enough.

“Doctor,” Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewert calls out as he enters the lab. “We’ve got a call.”

“I’m busy,” the Doctor tells him, though he’s just the opposite from where Martha’s sitting.

“Doctor,” the Brigadier sighs out, clearly tired of the Doctor’s bullshit.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asks.

“UNIT is being called to a scene,” the Brigadier tells her, though Martha can tell he’s trying to give her as little information as possible.

“Alright then,” Rose says, grabbing her jacket and motioning for Martha to do the same.

“What on Earth do you think you’re doing? The Doctor asks, clearly affronted.

“Doctor, something’s happened,” Rose explains, talking slowly like he should be understanding her. “Maybe someone else got sent back in time or something. Shouldn’t we go see?”

“Fine,” The Doctor snaps out, and if he was facing Martha, he would probably be sulking.

“You know you’re curious, too,” Rose tells him as she loops an arm through Martha’s.

“Let’s get this over with,” the Doctor mutters darkly, snatching up his magician's cape and walks out in front of them.

\--

“Look, I know how mad I’m sounding,” she sighs out, frustrated and beginning to lose patience.

“Shall we try it from the beginning this time?” the Desk Sergeant asks, calm despite her huffing in impatience.

“Okay,” Sally says, taking in a calming breath. “There’s this house. A big old house, been empty for years, falling apart. Wester Drumlins, out by the Estate. You’ve probably seen it.”

“Wester Drumlin?” He asks. She sees that get his attention and perks up. Finally.

“Yes.” She nearly shouts it in her joy of finally being believed.

“Could you just wait here for a minute?” He asks, getting up and walking into the station.

Sally lets out a breath and turns to lean against the desk. It looks as if it’s about to rain, which would be nice if she remembered her umbrel- Hang on. Those statues look familiar, but when she blinks they’re gone and she shakes her head.

“Okay, cracking up now,” she mutters to herself.

“Hi. DI Billy Shipton. Wester Drumlins, that’s mine,” A voice calls from behind her and she turns to see a rather fit bloke walk towards her with his head in a file. “Can’t talk now, got a thing I can’t be late for, so if you could just-” he looks up and spots her. “Hello.” His smile is gorgeous.

“Hello.”

“Eh, Marcie, can you tell them I’m going to be late for that thing?” He asks the Desk Sergeant before leading her away.

“Where we going?” She asks, but follows along.

“You wanted to know about Wester Drumlins, yeah? I’ll show you where all the leftovers are.” He gave her an easy smile.

“Leftovers?”

“Where all the abandoned cars are.” He points to an underground car park door and she’s intrigued. He opens it up to show more cars than she imagined there being.

“All of them?”

Billy nods his head. “Over the last two years, yeah. They all still have personal items in them and a couple still had the motor running.”

“So, over the last two years, the owners of all of these vehicles have driven up to Wester Drumlins House, parked outside and just disappeared?” She asks as she walks between the cars before spotting a big, blue box. “What’s that?”

“Ah!” Billy says as he goes to stand next to her. “The pride of the Wester Drumlins Collection. We found that there, too. Somebody’s idea of a joke, I suppose.”

“But what is it? What’s a police box?” And why did it look familiar in an odd deja vu way?

“Well, it’s a special kind of phone box for policemen. They used to have them all over, but this isn’t a real one. The phone’s just a dummy, and the windows are the wrong size. We can’t even get in it. Ordinary Yale lock, but nothing fits.” He sidels closer to her. “But that’s not the big question. See, you're missing the big question.”

“Okay, what’s the big question?” She looks up at him to see his wide smile.

“Will you have a drink with me?”

That throws her for a loop. “I’m sorry?”

“Drink? You? Me? Now?”

“Aren’t you on duty, Detective Inspector Shipton?” She’s trying not to flirt back, but it’s hard not to.

“Nope,” he tells her easily enough. “Knocked off before I left. Told them I had a family crisis.”

“Why?” And when had he done that?

“Because life is short and you are hot. Drink?” She smiles at that.

“No.”

“Ever?” He doesn’t even look a little put out, the flirt.

“Maybe.”

“Phone number?” He asks and she has to admire his persistence.

“Moving kind of fast DI Shipton,” she tells him, but not really minding it.

“Billy,” he tells her just as fast. “I’m off duty.”

“Aren’t you just.” She pulls out her notebook and writes down her number.

“Is that your phone number?” Billy asks, laughter in his voice.

“Just my phone number,” Sally tells him, not wanting him to get his hopes up. “Not a promise. Not a guarantee. Not an IOU. Just a phone number.” She hands it over and he looks like a kid in a candy store.

“And that’s Sally?”

“Sally Shipton. Sparrow! Sally Sparrow.” God, she could just die now. “I’m going now. Don’t look at me.” The ground could swallow her whole.

“I’ll phone you,” Billy tells her as she goes to leave.

“Don’t look at me,” she reminds him.

“Phone you tomorrow,” he continues as if she hadn’t spoken.

“Don’t look at me.” Though she knows it’s useless and she’s even smiling now as well.

“Might even phone you tonight!”

“Don’t look at me!” She yells as she’s at the door.

“Definitely going to phone you, gorgeous girl!” He yells after her and she pauses.

“You definitely better!” She doesn’t turn around, much too embarrassed to do so. She gets across the street from the station, but stops as she realizes something. She takes the Yale key she found in the House out of her pocket. “Hang about.” Not even thinking of her past embarrassment, she goes back to the car park, only to find Billy and the blue box are gone.

She’s just about to freak out when her mobile rings out.

“Hello? Billy, where are you? Where?”


	4. Say Hello to the Doctor for Me

They walk back into the lab covered in mud, shoes squelching with every step they take. Rose is just glad she chose her boots over her prefered trainers.

“Well that was an awful way to spend three hours,” Martha grumbles out. Rose grins at her.

“Better than that time in Old New York, though, right?”

Martha glares at her, mud slipping down from the top of her head to right to the tip of her nose. “You think?”

Rose pretends to think it over before nodding her head. “Well, now we have the mud for those pigs, eh?” She lets out a squeal and ducks as Martha flings mud at her.

“Oi! Watch the lab!” The Doctor shouts out as he shucks off his magician’s cape and velvet jacket. He’s not as covered as Rose and Martha, but he’s just as grumpy as Martha. “And didn’t you have enough of that in the swamp?”

“What did you say,  _ Time Lord _ ?” Martha asks angrily, stomping her feet. Mud sluices off her legs and onto the floor to pile up at her feet.

“Come on, Martha,” Rose says, trying to ease the tension. Her and the Doctor had bickered the whole way through the swamp that had suddenly sprang up in Shropshire, it was almost as if Martha had met the Doctor before with the way they were going at each other. “It wasn’t  _ totally  _ horrible, right? We know that Glickens need a swampy retreat to have their babies, and that they smell better than the swamp around them.”

“And they really,  _ really _ don’t like it when Mister Time Lord  _ ‘asks’ _ them to move their babies somewhere else,” Martha adds, a small smile flickering on her face.

“Yes, well, ‘s not just a Glickens thing,” Rose faux whispers, darting a quick wink to the Doctor. Martha just lets out a laugh and Rose counts it as a win. She knows Martha isn’t the Doctors biggest fan, and that’s mainly due to this particular Doctor, but she doesn’t know how to fix this without giving away the Doctor’s his-to-tell secret.

“Got anywhere for us to get less muddy?” Martha asks, grimacing as more mud trails down her cheek, making it look as if she’s crying.

“Right this way, ladies,” Benton answers, arm out to guide the way. Rose glances over at the Doctor, words at the tip of her tongue, but they die at the sight of him fussing with his shirtsleeves.

“Here, lemme,” Rose offers after waving Martha to go get changed. The Doctor stops, gives her a once over and then reluctantly hands over his wrists.

She makes sure not to touch his skin as she unbuttons his cuffs, knowing this regeneration was more touch sensitive, towards her especially.

“Thank you,” he says gently and she startles at his voice.

“You’re welcome,” she says with a smile. “‘S just shirtsleeves.” She gives a shrug and turns to go find Martha, but his hand on her elbow stops her.

“I meant with the Glickens,” he tells her. “You-  _ Both _ of you were quite handy to have around.”

“For Time Agents, right?” Rose asks, almost in parody of her first Doctor taking her to see Dickens.

“Yes, well.” He’s clearly flustered at that and she lets out a small chuckle.

“It’s okay, Doctor,” Rose tells him. “I know you still don’t quite trust us, perhaps you won’t until we meet again, but you’re still the Doctor to me. No matter what face you hold.” She skims his cheek with her hand before leaving, this time not stopping for him.

She showers and changes clothes, making sure hers and Martha’s muddied clothing gets placed in a garbage bag that she places in her leather jacket pocket, after she’s soniced it clean.

Martha’s mood seems to have gotten better after her shower, which Rose hopes coast her through the rest of this adventure.

“Food, anyone?” Rose asks as her stomach rumbles.

“God, I could eat,” Martha groans out.

“Hmm?” The Doctor asks as he fiddles with his timey-wimey device.

“Food, Doctor? Want some?” Rose asks again. He simply waves them off, most likely wanting some time to digest what she just said to him. “Alright, but we’re going  _ out _ ,” she says slowly, stressing certain words to get her point across.. “Walking the  _ streets _ . Going about  _ town. _ ” He looks up at this and she knows he’s got her point.

“Ah, of course, of course. Food. Let’s go, ladies,” the Doctor says as he pats his pockets. “We can take Bessie.”

“Bessie?” Martha asks as she reluctantly follows him out of the lab. He goes over to an old timey car painted a vivid yellow that hadn’t any doors.

“She’s a beauty,” Rose comments as she pulls herself into the passenger's seat. Martha slides into the back seat, no doubt wondering where the seatbelts were as was she.

“Yes, Bessie is quite a character. I was lucky to find her, as I told Liz just several months ago,” the Doctor shares as he starts the car up. The wind hits her face and whips her hair behind her and Rose is wondering how Martha is faring with her spot.

“Liz?” Rose asks, almost a near shout, hand coming out to brace herself as the Doctor brakes suddenly.

“My assistant.”

“Oh, tell me you have your license,” Rose says as she remembers their trip to the ‘50’s. “Nevermind, I know you haven’t.” Her hand comes out once more to steady herself as he turns.

“License?” The Doctor asks, scoffing. “Pish, Bessie practically drives herself.” He leans over and pats her chassis.

“It really shows,” Martha grumbles, only heard as the Doctor brakes once more.

“So where is she?” Rose asks once they’re moving at a more reasonable speed for the city. She wonders if Liz was like his Sarah Jane. Although she’s not sure when exactly Sarah Jane travelled with the Doctor, but she hopes they don’t accidentally meet as that would be pure chaos to meet someone who hadn’t known her in the future. Or was it the past? Martha was right, time travel played havoc on the tenses.

“Where’s who?” The Doctor asks, honking the horn at some kids to get them to get out of the street.

“ _ Liz _ , Doctor. Your assistant?”

“Oh, she went back to Cambridge. Haven’t the foggiest why. I’m in search of a new assistant, but there isn’t one I’ve found with a scientific background I’ve liked yet.” Rose has to hold her snort back when she hears Martha mutter about her knowing why this Liz up and left.

“Do they need a scientific background?” Rose asks, but his timey-wimey device starts up in the seat between them. Rose grabs it and tries to get a reading on where it’s pinging, but the way he’s built it is backwards. “How d’you read this thing? Did you take out the screen?”

“Made it more aerodynamic. Now, hand it over.” The Doctor snatches it from her hands and rather shakily drives them to where the blip reads.

“What’s up?” Martha asks, sounding and looking vaguely green.

“Looks like DI Shipton has landed,” Rose tells her.

“Right, looks like it’s a bit of a walk,” the Doctor says as he pulls Bessie over and gets out, all without taking his eyes off the timey-wimey device. Rose is wondering where all this grace had wandered off to in her previous Doctor’s body. That one could trip sitting down. “Come along now.”

“Martha?” Rose asks after seeing Martha not move from the car.

“You go on, I’m too tired and nauseous to do much more moving around.” She did look tired and now that Rose thinks about it, this has been rather a long day that started with them visiting Joan and Tim later in their timeline. Rose didn’t blame her one bit for feeling drained, especially after being rudely transferred to another time via Weeping Angel.

“Of course,” Rose tells her. “We’ll be right back with DI Shipton.” Rose squeezes her hand before trailing after the Doctor.

They had just made three left turns before spotting him, hunched over in an alley.

“Detective Inspector Shipton?” The Doctor calls out making the man turn around before collapsing to the ground.

“Where am I?” He asks groggily and Rose goes over and sits next to him.

“1969,” the Doctor answers, clicking off the timey-wimey device and squatting in front of DI Shipton. “Not bad, as far as this planet is concerned. Could be better, but there’s the moon landing to look forward to, I suppose. Unfortunately, technology hasn’t advanced much, so I’m stuck here, same as you.”

“What? How did I get here?” No doubt he was just as confused by the Doctor’s rambles as he was by the Angel transporting him here.

“Same as us, as he said. We all got touched by an Angel. Most likely the same one since we all ended up in the same year at roughly the same time.” She puts a hand on his arm as he goes to stand. “I wouldn’t just yet. Give your body time to adjust before standing. Time travel without a capsule is nasty business, trust me.” The Doctor gives her a once over as he takes in her words, but doesn’t comment.

“I don’t- I can’t-,” He starts, but is hyperventilating and can barely shake his head. Rose whispers in his ear, tries to get him out of his head.

“Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels,” the Doctor comments, standing to pace in front of them. “From what I gather, they’re one of the only races I’ve encountered that will kill you kindly. No mess, no fuss, no extraction of bodily organs or fluids. They just whisk you off into the past in the blink of an eye. So, you die in the past as you live in a time period you were never born into, and they get to consume all your potential energy in the present, all the moments they’ve stolen from you are now theirs to feast upon. More like creatures of the abstract than anything substantial.” He chuckles to himself as he thinks about it.

“What in god’s name are you talking about?” The DI asks, his panic attack subsided thanks to focusing on the Doctor’s rambling.

“Just nod when he stops for a breath, trust me,” Rose says as she helps him to his feet.

“I don’t understand. Where am I?” He asks again as he looks around now that he’s stood on his feet.

“Like he says, 1969,” Rose says gently. “You were brought here by an alien who feeds off of peoples interrupted lives, sorta like- like they teleported you here an’ then they took the rest of your life.”

“Am I dead!?”

“Erm, no. Sorry, didn’t explain that right.” Rose bites her lip.

“Well, I’d offer you a ride home, but somebody took the link I need to fly Her. Listen, Detective Inspector.” The Doctor walked right up to the man and looked him straight in the eye. “I need you to take a message to a Sally Sparrow. And, I apologize, my dear man. It’s going to take you a long while to deliver it, I’m afraid.”

\--

“Billy?” Sally calls out. She wasn’t sure she was in the right place, but then the man in the bed by the window wakes up and smiles as he sees her.

“It was raining when we met,” he tells her and her heart breaks as she realises what this means.

“It’s the same rain.” She lets out a small sob disguised as a laugh. First her friend and now this?

“I’ve so much to tell you,” he says, struggling to sit up. Once he’s as upright as he can be, he hands her a photo from the box on his nightstand.

“She looks nice,” Sally says as she looks over the dated wedding photo. It showed Billy with another woman, both smiling the biggest smiles as confetti rains down around them.

“Her name was Sally, too,” he teases and she chuckles.

“Sally Shipton.” She was still a little embarrassed as it had only just happened to her.

“Sally Shipton,” he repeats. “I often thought about looking for you before tonight, but apparently it would’ve torn a hole in the fabric of space and time, and destroyed two thirds of the Universe. Also, I’d lost my hair.” He rubs a hand over his bald head and gives her that smile from long ago.

“Two thirds of the Universe? Where’s you get that from?”

“There’s a man in 1969. He sent me with a message for you.”

“What man?”

“The Doctor.” He spoke the name as if it held great importance.

“And what was the message?” Was he going to hand her an old and faded letter, too? Only, did she know any doctors?

“Just this: Look at the list.”

“What does that mean? Is that it? ‘Look at the list’?” He had to wait all this time to tell her something that could be written on a napkin?

“He said you’d have it by now,” Billy tells her, grabbing her hands to keep her from leaving. “A list of seventeen DVD’s. I didn’t stay a policeman back then. Got into publishing. Then video publishing. Then DVD’s, of course.” He gives her a proud smile.

“You put the Easter Egg on,” she realises.

“Have you noticed what all seventeen DVD’s have in common yet? I suppose it’s hard for you, in a way.”

“How could the Doctor have even known I had a list? I only  _ just  _ got this.” She reaches a hand to where it sits in her pocket but doesn’t take it out just yet, wanting more time with Billy.

“I asked him how, but he said he couldn’t tell me. He said you’d understand it one day, but that I never would.”

“Soon as I understand it, I’ll come and tell you,” Sally says, trying to give him some kind of hope.

“No, gorgeous girl, you can’t. There’s only tonight. He told me all those years ago that we’ll only meet again this one time. On the night I die.” His voice is raspy and it finally hits her that he’s aged and lived his life.

“Oh, Billy.” She squeezes with the hand still in his grasp.

“It’s kept me going. I’m an old, sick man. But I’ve had something to look forward to. Ah, life is long and you are hot,” he tells her as tears roll down her cheeks. She smiles at his repeat of words, only slightly changed. “Oh, look at my hands. They’re old man’s hands. How did that happen?”

She wraps her hands around his to comfort him. “I’ll stay. I’m going to stay with you, okay?”

“Thank you, Sally Sparrow,” he whispers, voice breathy. “I have ‘til the rain stops.”

And sit there she does, for however long it took. She just held his hands and watched him sleep until the nurse came by and wheeled his body away.

She takes a deep, steady breath, before taking out the list and looks it over with fresh eyes, phone in her hands seconds later.

_ “Banto’s,” _ Larry answers.

“They’re mine,” she tells him without so much as a hello.

_ “What?” _

“The DVD’s on the list,” she explains as she crosses the street. “The seventeen DVD’s. What they’ve got in common is me. They’re all the DVD’s I own. The Easter Egg was intended for me.”

_ “You’ve only got seventeen DVD’s?”  _ Larry asks, ignoring her revelation.

“Do you have a portable DVD player?” She asks as an idea comes into her head.

_ “Of course,” _ he scoffs out.  _ “Why?” _

“I want you to meet me,” She tells him as she changes course.

_ “Where?” _

“Wester Drumlins.” She hands up before he can reply and when she gets to the house she waits for him to arrive.

“You live in Scooby Doo’s house,” he tells her as she opens the door for him.

“For god’s sake, I don’t live here!” Did he think she lived like this? There was a wood board covering a window right there!

They settle in the room with the writing on the wall, which he geeked out over as he saw the words.

“Okay, this is the one with the clearest sound. Slightly better picture quality on this one, but I don’t know,” he explains as he sets out his portable DVD player.

“It doesn’t matter,” she tells him.

“Okay, there he is,” Larry says as he angles the screen and starts the video.

“The Doctor,” Sally realises.

“Who’s the Doctor?”   
  


“ _ He’s _ the Doctor.” She points at the screen with him on it.

_ “Yes, that’s me,” _ the Doctor confirms.

“Okay, that was scary,” Sally says, feeling as if she were back in the video store and he’d answered her then as well.

“No, it sounds like he’s replying, but he always says that,” Larry says to comfort her, but it doesn’t quite work.

_ “Yes, I do.”  _ Especially when the Doctor does that.

“And that,” Larry says with a nod.

_ “Yes, and this as well,” _ the Doctor tells them with a sigh.

“He can hear us. Oh, my god, you can really hear us?” Sally asks, holding her breath.

“Of course he can’t hear us,” Larry tells her. “Look, I’ve got a transcript,” he holds up a bunch of papers to show her, “See? Everything he says.’Yes, that’s me’, ‘Yes, I do’, ‘Yes, and this as well’. Next it’s  _ ‘Are you going to read the whole thing out?’” _ But the Doctor says the last bit with Larry, so it doesn’t really comfort her at all. “Sorry,” Larry says to the screen, despite his insistence the man couldn’t hear them.

“Who are you?” Sally asks, wanting some answers to this mystery that has messed up her whole life in the short span of a day.

_ “I’m a traveller of time and space,” _ the Doctor answers, drawing himself up to seem important.  _ “Or I was until I got stuck in 1969.” _

The blonde girl from earlier enters the frame and sits down to the Doctor’s right, rolling her eyes as she does so.  _ “We’re  _ **_all_ ** _ stuck and you don’t see  _ **_us_ ** _ complaining. Thinks this is all to do with him.” _ She scoffs, nodding her head in the Doctor’s direction.

_ “Rose!” _ The Doctor scolds, but it has no effect on her other than Rose rolling her eyes once more.

_ “Yes?” _ She replies cheekily.

“I’ve seen this bit before,” Sally says aloud as she remembers.

_ “That is a possibility,” _ the Doctor tells the screen.

“1969, that’s where you’re talking from?” Sally asks, trying to wrap her head around this.

_ “Afraid so,” _ he drawls out, clearly not pleased with it.

“But you’re replying to me. You can’t know exactly what I’m going to say forty years before I say it!”

_ “Thirty eight,” _ the Doctor corrects. Rose thwaps him on the arm, much to Sally’s amusement and the Doctor’s ire.

“I’m getting this down,” Larry tells her, but she doesn’t really register it. “I’m writing in your bits.”

“How? How is this possible? Tell me,” she demands.

“Not so fast,” Larry says, but she only has eyes for the man on the screen in front of her.

_ “People don’t understand time,”  _ the Doctor explains.  _ “It’s not what you think it is. _ ”

_ “Really? Not what you think it- You realise how  _ **_pretentious_ ** _ you sound, yeah? _ ” Doctor Jones says as she cuts in again.

_ “Miss Jones,” _ the Doctor scolds.

_ “It’s  _ **_Doctor_ ** _ Jones, to you,  _ **_mister,_ ** _ ”  _ Doctor Jones scolds right back.

_ “Can we get back to it, yeah?” _ Rose asks.

_ “Time is not what you think it is,” _ the Doctor says, as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“Then what is it?” Sally asks.

“ _ Complicated.”  _ Rose thwaps the Doctor on the arm again.

“Tell me,” she repeats, not taking his shrug offs as an end to the conversation.

_ “Alright, very complicated.”  _ He nods his head as if he’s answered everything. Rose shakes her head fondly at the man, but Doctor Jones rolls her eyes.

**_“See?_ ** _ Pretentious,” _ Doctor Jones woman scoffs. Rose snorts into her hand.

_ “If you don’t mind,” _ the Doctor asks pointedly. Doctor Jones makes a sweeping gesture with her hand and the Doctor straightens out.

“I’m clever and I’m listening,” Sally says to the screen, pissed off at his lackadaisical attitude. “And don’t patronise me because people have died, and I’m  _ not _ happy.  _ Tell me. _ ”

The Doctor sighs once more.  _ “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective point of view-” _

_ “‘S more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff,” _ Rose cuts in again, looking proud of herself. The Doctor looks affronted at her once more.

“Yeah, I’ve seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you.”

_ “Thank you, _ ” the Doctor says to the camera while Rose rolls her eyes.

_ “It got away from me, yeah? _ ”

_ “Hey, I liked it,” _ Doctor Jones defends.  _ “Better than spatial-temporal, whatever  _ **_that’s_ ** _ supposed to mean.” _ She rolls her eyes.

“Next thing you’re going to say is, ‘well, we can hear you’,” she tells the screen.

_ “Well, we can hear you,”  _ the Doctor tells her, scrunching his eyebrows together.

“This isn’t possible.”

“No, it’s brilliant!” Larry comments. She had almost forgotten he was there, so caught up in who these people were and getting answers.

_ “Well, not  _ **_hear_ ** _ you, _ ” the Doctor amends.  _ “Not exactly. I know everything you’re going to say.” _

_ “That’s a bit Big Brother, don’t you think, Martha?” _ Rose asks Doctor Jones.

“Always gives me the shivers, that bit,” Larry says over Rose.

“How can you know what I’m going to say?” Sally asks, hoping for a straight answer this time.

_ “Look to your left,” _ the Doctor says while Rose and Martha use both hands to point in different directions, laughing to themselves while the Doctor slaps their hands down.

“What does he mean by ‘look to your left’?” Larry asks. “I’ve written tons about that on the forums. I think it’s a political statement.” But Sally looks over at him and understands.

“He means  _ you _ ,” she tells him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m writing in your bits,” Larry tells her and she remembers him telling her that earlier, too. “That way I’ve got a complete transcript of the whole conversation. Wait until this hits the net. This will explode the egg forums.”

_ “We’ve a copy of the transcript,” _ Rose pipes in.  _ “It’s in the autocue.” _

“How can you have a copy of the finished transcript? It’s still being written?” Sally asks.

Rose shrugs, glancing at the Doctor and Martha.  _ “Told you, time travellers. Got it in the future. Well, your future, my past.” _

“Okay, let me get my head round this,” Sally says, trying to work this out as best she can. “You’re reading aloud from a transcript of a conversation you’re still having?”

_ “Well, it’s quite simple really,”  _ the Doctor starts, but Rose and Martha cut in.

_ “Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, yeah _ ?” They both cut each other smiles while the Doctor scowls between them.

“Never mind that. You can do shorthand?” Sally asks Larry as she looks over at the transcript.

“So?”

_ “What matters,” _ the Doctor says, calling attention back to himself.  _ “Is that we can communicate.” _

_ “‘Cos we’ve got big problems now,” _ Rose cuts in again, face more grim than it’s been. “ _ They’ve taken the blue box, haven’t they? The Angels have the phone box.” _

“‘The Angels have the phone box’,” Larry repeats. “That’s my favourite. I’ve got it on a t-shirt.”

“What do you mean angels? You mean those statue things?” Sally vaguely remembers seeing one the other day in the garden.

_ “Creatures from another world,” _ the Doctor says.

“But they’re just statues,” Sally says with a scoff.

_ “That’s what I thought, too,” _ Martha tells her, but shakes her head.

_ “They’re only like that when you see them,”  _ Rose explains.

“What does that mean?”

_ “They used to be called the lonely assassins,”  _ Rose says.  _ “Not quite sure where they’re from, but they’re old. Nearly as old as this one,” _ she hooks a thumb towards the Doctor.  _ “An’ they've survived this long because they’ve got the perfect defense system evolved to perfection.” _

_ “More like evolved to  _ **_hurt,_ ** ” Martha mutters, rubbing her shoulder.

_ “You see,” _ the Doctor says over Martha, finally the one to cut in.  _ “They’re quantum-locked. They don’t exist when being observed by any living creature. They freeze into rock, no choice, as there’s no way to kill a stone. Vice versa, a stone can’t kill you, but then you turn your head, or you blink, and then yes it can.” _

“Don’t take your eyes off that,” Sally tells Larry, standing up to point at the Angel in the garden.

_ “‘S why they cover their eyes,” _ Rose says, mimicking the position.  _ “They’re not weeping, not really. They just can’t risk looking at each other on account of them triggering the others defensive mechanism. An’ I’m sorry, really I am, but it’s all up to you now.” _

“What am I supposed to do?” Sally asks, panicked at the thought of this being left to her with little to no information.

_ “The blue box, it’s my time machine,”  _ Rose explains, though a sour expression overcomes the Doctor’s face.  _ “There’s a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do would end just about everything. You’ve got to send it back to me, send it back in time.” _

“How? How?!” Sally shouts out, wanting more instructions than that.

_ “Sorry to say, but tha’s the last of the transcript,” _ Rose tells her and she freaks out. That can’t be it!  _ “Dunno what stopped you, but if I had the one guess…,” _ she trails off, hand to her hoop earring.

_ “They’re coming,” _ the Doctor picks up.  _ “The Angels are coming for you, but listen to me, your life could depend on this. Don’t blink. Don’t blink at all. Blink and you’re dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. So don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and don’t blink.” _

_ “Good luck,” _ they all three say at once, and then they freeze. The video stopped.

“No! Don’t! You can’t!” Sally shouts out, knowing it to be pointless.

“I’ll rewind him,” Larry says, but Sally just shakes her head.

“What good would that do?” She asks and then realises something. “You’re not looking at the statue.”

“Neither are you,” Larry says, though she can see him shiver. They both look over and jump at the Angel being in the room with them. It’s towering over them, hands reaching out and mouth wide open in a snarl as if to swallow them whole. They both back away from it, bumping into each other as they hit the doorway.

“There’s just one, right?” Larry says aloud. “There’s just this one. We’re okay if we just keep staring at this one statue. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“There are three more,” Sally says, paling at that.

“Three?”

\--

The sound of the TARDIS materialising sounds throughout the lab and Martha’s never been so excited in her life.  _ Finally! _ She hoots in joy and grabs Rose up in a hug before moving onto Benton and Yates, lingering a bit on them both.

“So the Doctor is in there, is he?” The Brigadier asks as he looks the two identical machines over.

“‘Course,” Rose agrees with a head bob. “But I don’t think he’ll pop his head out what with him being right there.” She points at the sulking Doctor off to the side.

“Right then,” The Brigadier says, straightening his spine. “And you’re certain the Doctor has to forget this ever took place?”

“Quite sure,” Rose tells him. “He doesn’t know me when we meet, not my face or name, nothin’.”

“It’s quite alright, my dear Brigadier,” the Doctor cuts in. “My race is quite adept at tucking away memories until they hit the right timeline.” He’s still sulking as he says it, though.

Rose goes over to him and pulls him behind the TARDIS, which everyone takes as the sign to leave the room. Martha just goes into the TARDIS and switches on the outside monitor, glad that Rose had taught her how to work that.

“Yes?” The Doctor asks, fidgeting and eye darting to look at anything  _ but  _ Rose.

“I just wanted to say-” Rose starts, but stops to bite her lip.

“Yes?”

“I know this won’t make much sense to you now, but someday soon it will. God, I hope it’s soon. Jus’- Jus’ know I’ll be waiting for you, okay? So come and find me.” Rose leans up on her toes and kisses his temple. The Doctor is shocked, mouth floundering like a fish and Martha could tell he was stiff from here. “Come and find me, my Doctor.”

Martha switches off the monitor as Rose opens the door, trying to look like she wasn’t eavesdropping. Rose gives her a smile as they catch eyes.

“Ready to be off?” Rose asks as she goes over to the console.

“God, yes!” Martha shouts, slumping back into the jumpseat, arms going behind her to brace for the bumpy takeoff.

“Next stop, anywhere,” Rose tells her with a grin. She slams down the lever and they go crashing to the floor in the force of the takeoff.

\--

1 YEAR LATER

“Can you mind the shop? I’m just nipping next door for some milk,” Larry asks her.

“Yeah, no worries.” She tries to hide what she was looking at.

“What’s this?”

“Nothing.” She places her hands over the folder

“Sally, can’t you let it go?” Larry asks..

“Of course I can’t let it go,” she tells him, the words almost transcripted themselves at how many times they’ve had this argument.

“This is over,” Larry tells her pointing at the folder.

“How did the Doctor and Rose and Martha know where to write the words on the wall? How could they get a copy of the transcript? Where did they get all that information from?” She asks him, trying to trip him up this time.

“Look, some things you never find out. And that’s okay.”

“No, it isn’t,” Sally says with a huff. She wasn’t giving this up.

“Ever think this might be getting in the way of other things?” He asks gently.

“We just run a shop together,” she tells him. “That’s all it is, just a shop.” She’s still a little upset at his refusal to question this with her, so she’s more harsh than she means to be.

“Anyway, milk,” Larry says as a way to change subjects. “Back in a mo’.” He walks out and she watches him go, but then a taxi stops in front of the storefront and suddenly Rose and Martha get out of it and Sally rushes out to them.

“Rose! Rose! Rose!” Sally shouts, waving her arms about to catch her attention, not caring how crazy she looks.

“Er, yes? Can I help you?” Rose asks as she comes over to her, Martha not far behind, both with bows in their hands and quivers on their backs.

“My god, it’s you,” Sally says as she takes Rose in. “Both you and Martha! It’s really you! Oh, you don’t remember me, do you?” She asks as she sees no recognition in either of their eyes.

Martha’s watch beeps and they both look down at it. “Uhm, sorry, but no, I-,” Rose looks at Martha who’s shrugging, “We don’t know you. Do we? Should we?” She fiddles with her earring and that’s when it hits her.

“Oh, my god, of course! You’re a time traveller! It hasn’t happened to you yet. None of it. It’s still in your future! Your future, my past.”

“Sorry? What hasn’t happened yet?”

“This another of those Queen Elizabeth things?” Martha asks. Her watch beeps again and they share a look. “Twenty til,” Martha tells Rose.

“Sorry, we’ve got a…. Situation to attend to,” Rose says. “What hasn’t happened yet? You alright?”

“It was me,” Sally tells her, realisation hitting her over the head. “Oh, for god’s sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me.”

“Got what, exactly?” Martha asks her, eyeing her up.

“Okay, listen. One day, you both are going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you’ve got this with you. You’re going to need it.” She hands over the folder, a little reluctant to part ways with it after all this time.

“Uh, thanks, I think,” Rose says as she takes the folder, looking it over. Martha’s watch beeps once more and they both take an abortive step away. “Listen, thanks for the,” Rose waves the folder in the air, “but we’ve somewhere to be. I guess we’ll be seeing you in the future, though?”

“Yeah,” Sally says, laughing at her reference. “And say hello to the Doctor for me, okay?”

“The Doctor?” Rose asks, stopping in her tracks, but Martha pulls her along. “Wait. You said-” she stops, shaking her head. It looks as if she’s fighting with herself. “What’s your name?”

“Sally Sparrow,” Sally tells her, holding out her hand. They shake, Rose giving her a sad smile.

“Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow. Gotta go now, but I can’t wait to meet you again!”

“Nice to meet you, Sally,” Martha says with a nod of her head. “Now would you come on! You’re the one who said the timing had to be perfect!”

“Bye, Sally!” Rose waves as she’s dragged along by Martha.

“Okay, no worries,” Sally says as she waves back. “On you go. See you around someday.” She walks back to her shop, smile on her face. “Timey-wimey indeed.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have several different versions of this whole episode in my google docs. I'm not even kidding, but on the plus side, I will have a new The Doctor Leaves serial for y'all soon! Yay!


End file.
